Serpentine magazine vending machine with spiral discharge

ABSTRACT

A VENDING MACHINE HAVING A SERPENTINE MAGAZINE IN THE FORM OA CHUTE FOR STORING ARTICLES TO BE VENDED AND A VERTICAL SPIRAL HAVING A HELICAL FLANGE FOR DISPENSING SAID ARTICLES ONE AT A TIMIE FROM THE FRONT OF THE MACHINE, THE ARTICLES BEING DELIVERED BY THE CHUTE OVER THE TOP AND DOWN THE FRONT OF THE SPIRAL ONTO SAID FLANGE THEREOF.

Sept. 20, 1971 1'. H. CROTEAU ETAL 3,606,081

SERPENTINE MAGAZINE VENDING MACHINE WITH SPIRAL DISCHARGE Filed Aug. 8, 1969 in R5 OTN TOE M 2 5 Z w TR ITTORNE Y.

3,606,081 SERPENTINE MAGAZINE VENDING MACHINE WITH SPIRAL DISCHARGE Thomas H. Croteau, Hartford, and Robert L. Renfro,

Windsor Locks, Conn., assignors to Walter E. Heller &

Company, Chicago, ill.

Filed Aug. 8, 1969, Ser. No. 848,530 Int. Cl. G07f 11/00 US. Cl. 221-75 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A vending machine having a serpentine magazine in the form of a chute for storing articles to be vended and a vertical spiral having a helical flange for dispensing said articles one at a time from the front of the machine; the articles being delivered by the chute over the top and down the front of the spiral onto said flange thereof.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Known vending machines having serpentine magazines are commonly provided with a coin controlled dispensing device having a complicated mechanism which renders said device costly to manufacture and often troublesome in its operation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides for the use of a simple dispensing mechanism which includes a single vertical spiral, such as commonly known in the art, having a helical flange for dispensing articles one at a time from a serpentine magazine; the said mechanism being greatly simplified by constructing the magazine chue to feed the articles over the top and downward in front of the spiral onto the said flange thereof.

The general object of the invention is to provide, for a serpentine magazine, a dispensing mechanism which is highly efiicient in its operation, extremely simple in construction and economical to manufacture.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION FIG. 1 is a partly sectional side view of a magazine for a vending machine embodying the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view, partly in section on line 22 of FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION As shown in the drawings, the numeral 5 denotes a magazine in the form of a serpentine chute, such as commonly used in vending machines for storing articles, such as the cans 6, to be vended and 7 denotes a dispensing device for dispensing said articles one at a time from said magazine through an outlet 8.

The magazine 5 may comprise a top cross member 9, a bottom cross member 10, having a bottom portion slanting downward over the top of said dispensing device toward the front of the vending machine, and intermediate opposed cross members 11, each having side flanges by means of which they are secured to side walls 12-12, preferably by tie bars 13.

The dispensing device 7 includes a single vertical spiral 14 which has a helical flange 15 and is rotatably mounted in a bearing 16, in a cross bar 17, and a bearing 18 in a cross plate 19 forming a base that has an upward and rearward slanting portion 20 at the bottom of the outlet 8 and is detachably mounted upon said side walls by cross bars 21--21. A motor 22 is also mounted upon said cross plate for driving said spiral and is controlled United States Patent 3,685,081 Patented Sept. 20, I971 A plurality of the above described magazines may be fastened together side by side by means of said side bars to provide a multiple section magazine assembly in an integral unit to be contained in a vending machine.

The articles are loaded into the magazine from the top thereof and will roll down the chute and rest upon the helical flange 15 of the spiral, between said spiral and the vertical wall portion 25 of the magazine, as illustrated in the drawing, which wall portion is located close to the front wall 26 of the vending machine.

In the use of said vending machine, when a coin is inserted into a suitable coin controlled operating device (not shown) the motor 21 is energized and the spiral 14 will be rotated one revolution; whereupon, the bottommost article will move down said spiral and be dispensed out of the outlet 8 of the magazine into a receiving basket 27.

It will be understood that by feeding the article over the top of the spiral and down between the front side of said spiral and the vertical wall portion 25 of the serpentine magazine, the dispensing mechanism is greatly simplified and the vended articles can be dispensed close to the front wall of the vending machine so that the full length of the magazine chute can be utilized for storing articles and thereby substantially increasing the capacity of the vending machine.

To provide for adjusting the front wall 25 to accommodate cans of different diameters between said front wall and the spiral 14, the upper end of the cross member 11b is mounted upon the rod 13 with a slot 28 and the lower end of said member is adjustably fastened to the side walls 1212 by means of pins 29 fitting into spaced opposed holes 30 in said side walls.

We claim:

1. In a vending machine, a serpentine magazine for storing articles to be vended, said magazine having a vertical front wall portion and an outlet below said wall portion, an article supporting portion slanting downward towards said vertical wall portion, and a dispensing device including a vertical spiral having a helical flange spaced from said vertical wall portion; said article supporting portion feeding said articles downward over the top of said spiral and between said spiral and vertical wall portion whereby said articles are supported by said flange against said vertical wall portion above said outlet.

2. In a vending machine, the subject matter set forth in claim 1, wherein the bottommost of the articles in the magazine rests upon said flange of the spiral and against said vertical wall portion above said outlet.

3. In a vending machine, the subject matter set forth in claim 1, wherein said vertical wall portion is adjustable relative to said spiral to accommodate articles of dilferent sizes between said wall portion and spiral.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,564,552 8/1951 Verdery 221 3,145,066 8/1964 ONeal 22l242X 3,248,005 4/1966 Ioschko 22175X-R 3,348,733 10/1967 Johnson 221-242X 3,387,743 6/1968 Algino 221-75 ROBERT B. REEVES, Primary Examiner T. E. KOCOVSKY, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

